Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine - Department of Oral Biology

Objectives: Artificial sweeteners are now abundant in all forms of beverages and food. Aspartame after saccharine is the most widely used artificial sweetener in the world. To substitute aspartame with a safer natural sweetener, some nutritionists believed that fructose is a safer form of sugar. Stevia rebaudiana is a natural herb, having great sweetening power and claimed to be safe for consumption. The current study was performed to investigate and compare the the effect of Fructose and Stevia as natural sweeteners to artificial sweetener (Aspartame) on the integrity of submandibular salivary gland of albino rats. This was achieved in terms of histological, histomorphometric and immunohistochemical analysis of the obtained data. Design: Fifty six male albino rats were utilized, fourteen as stevial group and twenty eight as aspartame and fructose treatment groups. The submandibular glands were dissected and examined histologically, immunohistochemically for NF-mB and p53 as well as histomorphometrically. Results: The histopathological results administration of aspartame, fructose and stevia showed degenerative effects on acini and duct systems Immunohistochemically, the image analysis revealed that the greatest mean values for both area percent and optical density of NF-mB were recorded in group II, whereas the lowest mean in control. ANOVA test revealed that the difference between groups was statistically significant (p<0.0001). Concerning the area percent of p53, the greatest mean value of was recorded in group I, whereas the lowest mean was in control

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